Region adds school bus to cut down on travel time

Friday

Aug 22, 2014 at 12:01 AM

LAKEVILLE — The Freetown-Lakeville Regional School Committee voted last week to add one more bus into the mix this school year, hoping that it will improve a situation which has long been criticized by some parents whose children spend 40 minutes or more going to or from school.

Matthew Ferreira

LAKEVILLE — The Freetown-Lakeville Regional School Committee voted last week to add one more bus into the mix this school year, hoping that it will improve a situation which has long been criticized by some parents whose children spend 40 minutes or more going to or from school.

According to Supt. of Schools Richard Medeiros, having one more bus will not reduce travel times for all routes but will for most of them.

"Out of the 20 bus routes for the five schools, we were able to initially reduce the times for 12 routes with the goal being 40 minutes per route," he told The Gazette.

Medeiros noted that preliminary data from the bus company suggests that adding one bus will shorten Apponequet Regional High School runs in the Assonet area, the middle school runs in the area near the Taunton and Middleboro town lines, and the elementary runs in the Commercial Drive area (primarily Assawompset Elementary School).

Earlier in the meeting during the Community Speaks portion, Lakeville resident Sarah Cousineau, who has three children in the school system, spoke about her children's experience having the longest bus ride in the district from their home on South Kingman Street to Assawompset Elementary School and back.

"I discovered our bus ride was twice the average run for the school. "¦We're the first picked up and the last dropped off and that seemed to me to be illogical," she said of the 2010-2011 school year. "I understand that somebody has to be first picked up and last dropped off but I don't think it should be the same children who should have to pull the short straw on both those ends."

Cousineau noted that the route, which was 94 minutes for a number of years, has since been brought down to 88 minutes. She said over the years she has attempted to address the situation with school administration and the bus company but "nobody wanted to have a conversation about it"¦."

The School Committee was informed at last week's meeting that the cost of adding one bus would be $77,162. However, with the 90 percent transportation reimbursement rate for regional school districts as indicated by the state, the cost to the district would only be $7,716. Medeiros recommended the one additional bus scenario to the School Committee as being the most cost-effective option, adding that the bus company also recommended the same.

"It is our recommendation if you were going to make an increase would be one bus because the significant cost there and the savings from our perspective didn't seem to balance out," said Medeiros, asking committee members to "keep in mind the 90 percent (reimbursement) is after the fact and it's only for this year".

Medeiros said he was "cautiously optimistic" that the state would stick by the 90 percent rate.

Fred Baker, the region's director of finance, human resources and operations, explained that the addition to the district's bus system would be funded through school choice funds — which are funds generated through filling available slots with out-of-district students and being reimbursed from those students' communities.

According to Baker, the district's school choice balance is currently around $150,000. Medeiros confirmed with The Gazette outside the meeting that the district expects to receive a total of $100,000 this school year for 20 slots currently filled, which includes five new students and the 15 school choice students already in the district. There are also four slots still open — three at FES (grade 2) and one at AES (grade 3). Each student generates $5,000 each.

Some School Committee members said they thought adding a second bus would be worthwhile.

School Committee member David Davenport pointed out that according to data provided by the bus company, a second bus would greatly improve travel times for Freetown Elementary School routes which the one bus scenario doesn't substantially impact.

"I addition of two buses I don't think is a massive change," said chairman David Goodfellow. "We do have a funding mechanism for it. We do have the ability to impact all of the schools."

School Committee member Derek Gracia, at his first meeting since being reappointed to the committee, made the motion to take the administration and bus company's recommendation and add one bus, stating he agreed with the chairman but was too unsure of the future to commit to two busses.

School Committee member Jean Fox, who like Gracia was also at her first meeting back on the committee, said if the 90 percent reimbursement rate doesn't stay as high in the future, having to take two busses back out of the system would be more devastating than having to take back one.

When it came down to a vote, Gracia's motion to add one bus passed by a slim margin of 4-3, with David Goodfellow, Carolyn Gomes and David Davenport voting against. Gracia, Fox, Bret Kulakovich, and Robert Clark voted in support. School Committee member Robert Nogueira was not in attendance.

According to Medeiros, with the addition of one bus, all routes should be under or just over the 40-minute goal set by the School Committee at a previous meeting, although he said the route referenced by Sarah Cousineau earlier was going to be logistically problematic to shorten. However, on Tuesday he updated The Gazette and said since the meeting, he and the bus company have been working to substantially improve the ride time for that route as well.

New bus routes should be released on the district website, www.freelake.org, by tomorrow.